Uptown Girls (and Boy!) at Uptown Cafe
I kind of expected Uptown Cafe to be ludicrously expensive, considering the primo location right on Bardstown Road. Luckily, it wasn’t. We had a great meal at a great price with great friends. Would that I could stop there but alas! I am a budding food critic, and as such I must dissect this meal until I can once again compare the grains of taste and texture to all the other swatches I have in my head from this great city.
We started off with stuffed mushrooms in a brandy cream sauce, tres delightful, and a few crunchy fried green tomatoes—not up to Goose Creek Diner standards, but passable. The smoked pork sliders were also good, but the prosciutto wrapped melon: ooh la la (I don’t know why I’m suddenly French today, probably because I am writing this from my favorite college coffee shop, Sunergos, where I carried out many of my ill-advised French study sessions). Anything that combines meat with something cool and sweet successfully has my vote of approval.
Our entrees took a LONG time to arrive, considering it was a week night, but we were not in a hurry. The duck ravioli with mushrooms in white wine sauce proved a bit too dry, I think it would be much better in a heavy vodka sauce. The Uptown Burger, topped with bacon and aged white cheddar, was ordered rare and ACTUALLY CAME RARE.
By far the most successful entree at our table was the Jaugerschnitzel, a breaded pork tenderloin in spicy brown cream sauce with peppers, mushrooms, potatoes and veggies. I have heard the best way to find out the best food at any restaurant is to order the weirdest thing on the menu, the thing that sounds the least appetizing, and boy did it work out here. The dripping, juicy pork was perfectly showcased in a crispy breading, the savory sauce only slightly dampening the delightful crunch.
We ordered a great deal of dessert; amaretto cheesecake, a lemon cake, and a strawberry napoleon. We were neither pleased nor particularly peeved by this experience, I would advise skipping dessert at Uptown and sticking to the very affordable entrees and appetizers.
In summary, the cheeseburger was very good, and exactly rare enough; the prosciutto wrapped melon was the essence of summertime, the hummus was snappy as can be; but the desserts were lackluster, I’d put money down they weren’t made in house. Despite these relatively minor gripes, I’d say Uptown Cafe is a nice, solid safe choice for a reliably good nosh.
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